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For many homeowners throughout North America, The Home Depot has become a haven for finding all the gear they need for DIY improvement projects, either out in the yard or inside their house. While things like blowers, shovels, lumber, mulch, and underrated tool brands continue to be items that regularly fly off the shelves at HD stores, the big box retailer has expanded its offerings to include everything from appliances and interior lighting to homewares and even furniture. 

Whether you know it or not, The Home Depot has actually started offering items that go beyond those home improvement adjacent categories. In fact, the retailer now offers many items that don’t really have much to do with DIY improvement projects at all. They are, instead, geared towards helping you and your crew have a little more fun when you’re hanging out in your sacred space, and can be purchased either through The Home Depot’s online outlet or at your closest brick-and-mortar store.

Wherever you buy them, we’ve taken the liberty of highlighting a few fun, in-stock gadgets that may not only prove handy to have around, but also bring a few more fun times into your home. Though that may depend, of course, on your own definition of “fun.”

If the kitchen is the room in your home in which you have the most fun, The Home Depot offers a few handy gadgets that can bolster your cooking game. That’s particularly true if you enjoy trying out recipes for tasty treats that are, in general, more popular with folks who live in other countries. If Scandinavian cuisine is on that list for you and your family, you’ll be happy to know that the retailer carries several cooking gadgets bearing the Nordic Ware brand.

Among those offerings is the brand’s Krumkake Iron, which users have rated a reasonably respectable 4.4 stars out of 5. For what it’s worth, that user rating is skewed dramatically by a single 1-star review from a customer who seemingly had an issue at the point of purchase, and does not ding the Nordic Ware iron itself. The other 12 reviews are almost universally positive, with users praising the iron for its overall effectiveness at the $74.98 price point. 

If you’re not sure what a Krumkake is, it’s a traditional, wafer-like Norwegian holiday cookie that can be enjoyed flat, or rolled and stuffed with a sweet filling of your own liking. You can, obviously, make them any time of year you like if that sounds like a fun cooking project. You will, however, need a specific Krumkake Iron to properly make them, and, according to YouTuber NX Revs, this cast-iron, stove-top-ready model should more than suit your needs. Just FYI — it also comes with a Krumkake recipe and cone roller, is Made in the USA, and backed by a 5-year warranty.

When it comes to having a little fun on the home front, the living room is a sacred space for the streamers, cineastes, and gamers of the world, and the home theater system is their glowing altar. Even though there are many factors to consider when setting up your home theater, it’s safe to assume that ambient mood lighting for your setup is not high on the list for many.

The smart lighting gurus at Govee might be quick to argue that it should be, and the company has developed a handful of fun lighting packages that could transform your upcoming movie night or even your next gaming session. The Home Depot currently lists a few of those packages for sale, with kits varying in terms of included features, and they are designed for different sizes of television screens. This RGBIC TV Backlight Kit is designed for 55-inch to 65-inch screens and retails for $135.78. For that price, you get 12.5 feet of Smart LED strip lighting, two light bars, and a camera with a mic.

If you’re curious about that last item, the camera is designed to capture video and audio from your screen and deliver real-time adaptive lighting based on your content, which is kinda cool. The lighting is also controllable through a Govee app or voice commands via connection to Alexa or Google Assistant. Users generally praise the Govee kit for being easy to set up and control. Some feel the color adaptiveness is not as accurate as it could be, with YouTube channel Geek Street seeming to confirm some of the positives and negatives in their test video.

Some folks might be quick to tell you one of their legit joys in life is enjoying an adult beverage in the calming comfort of their home. There are, however, quite a few among that group who might prefer to take that concept a step further by enjoying an adult beverage that they actually made themselves.

Humans have, obviously, been making consumable alcohol on their own for ages. There have, perhaps, never been more ways for them to legally do that in their own homes than there are today, with home brewing — even LG makes an option – and distilling kits being made and sold in any number of retail environments. That list does indeed include The Home Depot, as the big box retailer lists several such kits from Vevor in its web store.

We’ve selected Vevor’s 8-Gallon Distiller Kit largely because it’s among the best user-rated options available from The Home Depot, and it costs just $79.79. Vevor also claims the kit is suitable for beginners, with The Hub Pages seeming to confirm that fact. In any case, the stainless steel boiler is fitted with copper coils and food-safe silicone tubing, features a built-in thermometer, utilizes a rapid open-cooling method, and can be used to distill wine, water, ethanol, and essential oils. According to Vevor, the kit can also be used to distill liquors. For the record, that practice is generally still illegal even for personal use in the United States. Regulations may vary by state, however, so if you’re not looking to go full moonshiner, you’d be wise to consult local laws before making spirits.   

With cocktail culture edging ever closer to the pop culture arena, many folks no doubt have at least one friend who’s constantly out to dazzle with their latest radical takes on classic cocktail recipes or their growing collection of infused bitters. If you are that friend, it’s likely that you’ve at least thought about adding a touch of smoke to a few of your favorite recipes, particularly those with a whiskey base.

You might be surprised to know that you don’t need to hit up a bar supply store to procure a good cocktail smoking kit. If you’re shopping at The Home Depot, you won’t even need to spend that much money, as the retailer is selling Oklahoma Joe’s Cocktail Smoking Box for just $40.95. The box currently has just two user reviews on its product page, but both of them are 5-star. However, this easy-to-use box is listed by both Liquor.com and Food & Beverage as one of the best options on the market if pro reviews matter to you.

As far as how it works, each box — which Oklahoma Joe’s claims is handmade from white oak — has a removable tray built into its base. In essence, you simply place a glass containing whiskey inside and close the locking lid. From there, you fill the tray with wood chips or pellets, hit them with a handheld torch (sold separately), and slide the tray into the base. Smoke then fills the chamber, infusing your precious spirits with all the smoky goodness you desire. Here’s to taking it easy.

When it comes to food, pizza has long-served as the poster child for culinary good times, serving as the cuisine of choice for birthdays, movie nights, and casual get-togethers for decades. Part of the draw of pizza is, of course, that it’s a lot of fun to eat. If you enjoy cooking, it’s also a lot of fun to make, as the whole family can take part in the rolling, kneading, and topping. 

The only problem is that you can’t really make fresh pizza the right way unless you’ve got a dedicated oven set up in your kitchen, or an outdoor pizza oven on your property. After all, conventional ovens can’t quite match the intense heat of a real pizza oven, with the latter option trending on the pricey side. However, if you’re desperate to mimic the pizza oven effect without the potentially steep financial investment, The Home Depot is now selling a High-Conductivity Pizza Steel Plate from SVOPES for just $57.22.

Since your oven can’t match the internal heat that is generally required to properly cook your homemade crust, a stone or steel plate can be used to boost cooking temperatures. SVOPES’s heavy-duty steel pizza stone claims to deliver 20 times more conductivity than a ceramic stone, and double the heat capacity to ensure your crust is evenly cooked and crispy. And it should be easy to store in most kitchens. As it’s made of steel — which some pros prefer to stone — it should also be quite durable, and in case there are any questions, real users are raving about this pizza plate, rating it 4.9-stars out of 5.  

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